8:18 AM ET IT WAS THE bottom of the ninth inning inside Houston’s Minute Maid Park, and James Harden and Russell Westbrook sported matching orange Astros jerseys, taking in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series from the first row behind the backstop. Some 20 feet away, Astros All-Star Jose Altuve had just stepped
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1:22 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers spent the offseason building a team focused on a very specific identity: being big and physical and imposing their will on their opponents at both ends of the court. And, if Philadelphia’s season-opening 107-93 victory over the Boston Celtics at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday
7:26 AM ET IT’S 60 MINUTES before the Golden State Warriors‘ second-to-last preseason game of the year, and Staples Center is quiet. Stephen Curry, who has just finished his pregame shooting routine, gives D’Angelo Russell a pat on the chest and stops to sign a handful of autographs before entering the visitors locker room. Curry
1:07 AM ET DALLAS — Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal got sick of seeing Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic score with ease and decided to do something about it. Beal made it his mission to get physical with Doncic in the fourth quarter. That resulted in several chippy exchanges between the stars, who talked trash
8:41 AM ET Welcome back to the dynamic and dramatic world of NBA basketball. After months of arguing on Twitter about what might happen next June while also following shooting coaches on Instagram, actual games are now here to satiate your basketball jones. The primary goal of this column — which runs every weekday morning
10:36 PM ET Charlotte Hornets forward Nicolas Batum fractured a finger on his left hand in Wednesday’s 126-125 win over the Chicago Bulls, the team said. Batum returned to the locker room after the third quarter with what the team initially said was a sprained hand. After the game, the Hornets said an X-ray revealed
10:40 PM ET NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving oozed swagger when he walked onto the court during the starting lineup announcement on Wednesday. After all, Irving viewed this — the Nets’ regular-season opener — as a sort of homecoming. To mark the occasion, he dazzled offensively and broke four records. The guard finished with 50
8:46 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN CHARLOTTE — There were no first game jitters for former Kentucky star PJ Washington during his NBA debut for the Charlotte Hornets. The 12th overall pick made a huge splash on Wednesday against Chicago with seven 3-pointers in his career debut, the most in the NBA’s 3-point era since 1979-80,
9:01 PM ET EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Frank Vogel admits that Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers disrupted “everything” in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 112-102 loss on opening night. But in straying from their intended pick-and-roll heavy offense because of the Clippers’ switching schemes, Vogel believes the Lakers happened upon an effective alternative. “The first
8:03 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — LA Clippers guard Patrick Beverley has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for throwing a game ball into the stands. Beverley threw the ball at the end of the Clippers’ 112-102 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night. The NBA announced the punishment on Wednesday.